Migrating microbes: what pathogens can tell us about population movements and human evolution

Annals of Human Biology
Charlotte J HouldcroftSimon J Underdown

Abstract

The biology of human migration can be observed from the co-evolutionary relationship with infectious diseases. While many pathogens are brief, unpleasant visitors to human bodies, others have the ability to become life-long human passengers. The story of a pathogen's genetic code may, therefore, provide insight into the history of its human host. The evolution and distribution of disease in Africa is of particular interest, because of the deep history of human evolution in Africa, the presence of a variety of non-human primates, and tropical reservoirs of emerging infectious diseases. This study explores which pathogens leave traces in the archaeological record, and whether there are realistic prospects that these pathogens can be recovered from sub-Saharan African archaeological contexts. Three stories are then presented of germs on a journey. The first is the story of HIV's spread on the back of colonialism and the railway networks over the last 150 years. The second involves the spread of Schistosoma mansoni, a parasite which shares its history with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the origins of fresh-water fishing. Finally, we discuss the tantalising hints of hominin migration and interaction found in the genome of human...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 26, 2017·Annals of Human Biology·Djuke Veldhuis, Simon J Underdown
Oct 6, 2017·Virus Evolution·Simon J UnderdownCharlotte Houldcroft
Jan 24, 2020·ELife·Raeed H ChowdhuryLee E Miller
Nov 22, 2018·Frontiers in Immunology·Christian Schwartz, Padraic G Fallon
Jun 19, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Clark Spencer LarsenBonnie Glencross
Sep 27, 2020·American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council·James Holland JonesZack Almquist
Mar 16, 2021·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Joel O WertheimSébastien Calvignac-Spencer

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